Recycling Tips

I am writing an extra post because I want to share some recycling tips for you. These apply specifically to the City of Phoenix, but most cities in the Phoenix area have similar recycling rules. Check with your locality to learn more!

Before working at Solid Waste, I considered myself a pretty decent recycler. It wasn't something I gave a great deal of thought to, and convenience was key, but I tried my best. However, I have improved a lot as a recycler. I always recycled paper, plastic bottles, cardboard, and glass bottles, but I didn't think about other items. Here are my tips:

Things you can recycle that you probably aren't (or I wasn't, until recently):

• Shampoo, conditioner, body wash bottles- just rinse them out in the shower to get the last bit out 
• Laundry detergent jugs- you can now recycle all plastics, 1-6, including these
• Plastic food containers, like margarine tubs
• Food cans
• Glass food jars 

Things you can't recycle that you (or friends and family) might be throwing in:

• Paper towels- just because paper is in the name doesn't mean its recyclable! paper towels are compostable though
• Pizza boxes- these are too greasy/contaminated
• Plastic bags- these get stuck in the machinery at the MRF. Take them to the grocery store to recycle instead

Most important is to keep out food waste, including paper containers that are greasy or food-y.

Hopefully that helps some well meaning people who just don't think about or realize all of the items that are recyclable! This is certainly not all inclusive, but you can look up your city or town online and see what their specific policies are.  Happy Recycling!

Thank You Letter

Although I am not finished with my internship quite yet, here is an idea for a thank you letter to my supervisors:

To Lorizelda Stoeller and John Trujillo,

Thank you both so much for this opportunity to intern at Solid Waste. I have really enjoyed all of my experiences out in the field and in the office. John, it is fantastic to have the support of a manager for the internship program, and have a manager who values the work of student interns. Lori, you are extremely kind and helpful, and lead by example.

I look forward to the rest of my year here at the City, and I hope to learn and contribute a great deal more.

Sincerely,
Megan O'Brien

Looking Back

What were the most important things you learned from this internship? Look back to your first blog post. Did you meet your initial goals? Why or why not?


Here are my goals from my first blog post:

My three goals for this internship:

1) Learn about city government and its sustainability programs

2) Gain research skills

3) Network and learn from my coworkers

I am only halfway through my internship, as it is a yearlong experience, so I still hope to learn a great deal more. Here are my thoughts so far on reaching my goals:
1) I have gone to some City Council Subcommittee meetings, and learned about how the Public Works department fits in to the City as a whole. I came in knowing very little about all of the programs in Solid Waste, which I now know is an extremely efficient and hard-working department with a lot going on behind the scenes. Not only have I learned about sustainability programs, but I have also helped shape them!

2) I have done a lot of research, and learned a lot about other cities and municipalities solid waste programs. I have emailed and called different people, and learned how to better organize and present information.

3) This is the goal I would like to focus on in the next half of my internship. While I have gotten to know my coworkers better, I would like to learn what they do in more detail and collaborate with them more on projects.

I have also done several events and ride alongs out in the field, and I have learned why the solid waste division values field experience so much. It is very important to know what is going on at every level. 

Although I am finished with this intern class, I am not done with my internship, and I look forward to learning a lot more in the coming months. 

Transportation and Infrastructure City Council Subcommittee

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee meeting, to see the presentation on our Solid Waste Programs. We had already made a presentation about a month before, but the Council had some concerns about them, so the leaders altered the programs. It was great to see some of the work I had done had contributed to the presentation, and the subcommittee recommended our programs.

I found the presentation before ours very interesting; it actually got to the crux of the challenges of public service. The presentation was about proposed changes in bus routes, to be more efficient and save money. It was clearly extremely well researched and had included stakeholder meetings and extensive cost-benefit analysis. The presentation was very detailed down to the bus routes that were going to be changed.

One bus route was proposed to be changed from every 15 minutes to every 30 minutes. A citizen, who rides the bus route, spoke against this proposed change on behalf of his community. Many of the riders have no alternate form of transportation, and there is no bus shelter for the stop. Council members were concerned for the residents, but the administrators from transportation said that just that one route change would save the City $80,000. Even to compromise at every 20 minutes, the City still would not be able to save the $80,000.

This is why it is difficult to run government like a business. If the City were a business, they would most likely easily choose their bottom line and save the $80,000. But council members and administrators have to be concerned about their constituents, especially the most vulnerable citizens from low-income areas who rely on public transportation.

The subcommittee voted to recommend all of the changes except for that one route. They could not sacrifice the well-being of the constituents for the large savings.

What are the strengths of your organization? If you were in charge of a similar organization, are there any things you would do differently?

I could choose several levels to respond to this question- the entire City of Phoenix, the Department of Public Works, or the Solid Waste division. I'm going to focus on Solid Waste, although some things I think apply to both Public Works and the whole city.

• Innovation and Creativity: I feel very appreciated as an intern. The leaders at Solid Waste are always looking for innovative and creative ideas, and they like having new, young people to contribute. They have recruited several young master's educated students (mostly ASU MPA's) to the division.  Not to say that the workers who have been there a long time can't contribute creative ideas too- they welcome ideas from all levels.
• Value all of their employees and encourage communication: Something that is unique to solid waste is that they encourage all employees to do ridealongs to gain an understanding of operations firsthand. They do not want to have a deep chasm grow between those in the field, like drivers and landfill operators, and those of us who are at City Hall in a cubicle all day. I have also attended meetings out in the field with other City Hall folks. 
• Great Leaders: The supervisors I work with the most are great leaders. My supervisor is an Administrative Assistant II, Lorizelda, and she is a really great leader. She has a lot of responsibility, but she wants the interns to have a great learning experience, and she helps us out when necessary but also lets us take responsibility for our own projects. I also work with John Trujillo, the Assistant Director of Public Works. He is a great advocate for the internship program in general, and has a great enthusiasm for his work. I often see him walking around the office just to see how people are doing- this is not something you always see from a boss. Both Lorizelda and John have these very positive attitudes that inspire and motivate people to do a good job.

I'm actually not sure what I would change about my organization. I think I need to still spend more time here; I still feel like I only have a basic understanding of what goes on. I will be here for a year, so I feel at the end of my time I will have a better idea. So far, so good!

Career Services Post 2: Federal Jobs Webinar

I was struggling to find the time to attend a career services event, but then I discovered that there are Career Webinars on ASU's website, many of which have been recorded and saved: https://eoss.asu.edu/cs/students/webinars. I decided to watch the Go Government webinar, which is about applying for federal jobs and internships.

I have applied to some federal jobs and internships in the past, so I was interested to see what advice would come from the webinar. There was some great information about federal pay grades, how to search for federal jobs, and how to make your application stand out. There was an employee from the General Services Administration who gave some insight into their particular Pathways programs.

I already knew some of the information, but there were also some useful tips. For example, the Federal resume is expected to be much more longer and detailed than a regular resume.

It's great to know that ASU has this resource of pre-recorded webinars available, since it can be hard to find the time in our crazy work and school schedules to attend an event in person.

Public Works Department Meeting

Last Friday the 15th, I attended a staff meeting for the entire Public Works Department. Public Works includes not only Solid Waste, where I work, but also Fleet Services and Facilities Management. Neil Mann, the director of Public Works, MC'ed the meeting. This was an especially exciting meeting because Acting City Manager Ed Zuercher came to speak to us. He has only been in the position for about a month, and he explained that he is trying to go to as many staff meetings as possible and meet as many City of Phoenix employees as he can. He made a political kind of speech about the direction of the City in general and then took questions from employees. He reassured employees regarding their pensions.

Here in Phoenix we have a council-manager form of government, which means that the City Manager is actually much more powerful than the Mayor, who is basically just a city council member. Former manager David Cavazos left the City of Phoenix for Santa Ana, which is why Ed Zuercher is the Acting Manager. He has a lot of control over how the City is run. So it is great for the employees to get the opportunity to ask him questions about whatever they wish.

I also got introduced, along with other recent hires to the department. There were a couple of presentations, including one about the new Solid Waste Programs I have been working on.

Overall, the whole department is full of friendly, highly-experienced employees. I really like the working atmosphere of the City as I have experienced it so far.

Garbage Truck Fans

Since working in Solid Waste, I have discovered a rather fascinating subculture. I learned that there are people that go around filming garbage trucks and posting them on YouTube. They know all of the different kinds of trucks, and enjoy discussing them with other garbage fans. And I am not talking about children, who are often known to be huge fans of garbage trucks. These are adults. Here is one example:

Here is a playlist a fan put together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKB24qVZ-_E&list=PL2ADD4399A816CF33

I love the comments. Some people even have trash related user names.

During one of my ride alongs, I told my driver about these videos. He had no idea, and thought maybe that's why someone was following him one day.

Anyways, I find these niche groups very interesting and hope you might as well.

The World of Communications

The other intern, Patricia, and I have been working on communications for the new programs for Solid Waste. I have not really done much related to communications before, but it is an important aspect of government. New programs may make sense on paper, but if you can't explain them to your residents, they are pointless.

After researching other cities, Patricia and I worked with Yvette Roeder, who is a public information officer for Public Works. She was extremely helpful, and shared her knowledge with us about communicating to residents. Her friendly and open personality makes her easy to work with. She also has her own intern from the Cronkite school, who has also been helping us.

Patricia and I have done several presentations for leaders in our department, presenting our ideas, including mock ups of visuals for use in mailers and the webpage.

I have learned a lot, and I feel like I have really contributed to my department. You might see some of my ideas in a mailer, video, on the radio, or on the website!

How does your organization demonstrate public service and/ or urban governance?

Solid waste services are probably one of the services most taken for granted, but one of the most important services needed for a city to function. To be honest, before this internship, I had not given it much thought myself even though my family has always had City of Phoenix trash collection. 

As I saw when I shadowed call center employees, a lot of our job is customer service. Sure, people take trash collection for granted, but one something goes wrong, they expect it to be fixed immediately. 

I am extremely impressed with how hard everyone works in my department, and it is always the goal to serve the people. Whether it is dealing with residents directly, or trying to figure out the most efficient routes, everyone has public service in mind.

One of the reasons I like solid waste is that we also are always thinking of the future of the city and of future generations. Our goal is to reduce waste and to get people to recycle more, and part of the goal in everything we do is to be environmentally friendly. It is hard for many government agencies to focus on the future when they are so busy focusing on the present (and residents demand that they focus on the present). 

It is very important to me to work somewhere that demonstrates public service, and at the City of Phoenix Public Works Solid Waste, I definitely feel that we exemplify it!

SR 85 Landfill Tour

Oops. I got behind in my internship blogging. I actually went on the landfill tour on October 23rd. I went with the other intern, and a couple of my co-workers. The landfill is out in Buckeye. Just think about that next time you throw something away...it has to get trucked all the way to Buckeye, almost to Gila Bend! The land is owned by the city and was opened in 2006. 

Here is a picture of the section of the landfill that is currently being used:

This is a view from far away, but you might be able to spot the semi-trucks dumping garbage, tarps to cover the trash, and water trucks that prevent dust.

Another view of the section currently in use:

In this photo, you can see the trucks driving to dump their loads:

There is a lot more to a landfill then it appears. The managers of the landfill who led our tour explained in detail. They are constantly trying to get the most efficient use out of the land and the space, while following EPA landfill regulations. 

There is a lot of land that is not being used currently, since the landfill is used in sections, with the trash being compacted and eventually buried. The city leases part of the land out to farmers. Here are some of the fields:

Cotton fields:

This is from the section of the landfill that is full, so has been buried. This is the road that is being built on it:

A landfill produces methane gas, which must be monitored. The landfill uses these flares to burn off the gas. These could be used for energy production:

This part of the landfill is going to be eventually used as a park, as part of the deal the City of Phoenix made with Buckeye:

I could probably write about 5 entries just on the landfill, but this is the basics. There is a lot more to a landfill then I had ever imagined, and the City is constantly thinking about ways to cost costs, be environmentally friendly, and save space.

Interview with a Vampire. Er. Supervisor

Interview one of your supervisors.
For this blog post, I was tasked with interviewing a supervisor, so I chose Lorizelda Stoeller (not a vampire or even close to a bloodsucker, like so many in government). She is my supervisor and an Administrative Assistant II in Solid Waste. 


What are her main job responsibilities? 
Lorizelda manages the budget for the Special Projects division. She maintains the positions in Specials Projects, working with HR to code them correctly. She is in charge of monitoring all contracts. Solid Waste have vendors to do everything from washing trucks to buying ice for drivers. She does other duties as assigned, such as working on the Reimagine Phoenix campaign and Chapter 27 (City Code related to Solid Waste).

How did she choose this career? 
Lori actually never thought that she would be in solid waste. She got her undergraduate degree in marketing and worked in the private sector for 5 years, for companies such as Pepsi. Her goal was to get an MBA and become a CEO. However, after getting laid off in 2008, Lori wanted to choose a new career path. Jaded by the private sector, Lori had always enjoyed volunteering and helping others and discovered the MPA degree. She went back to school, pursuing the ASU MPA degree. While at ASU, she did an internship in government relations for the City of Phoenix, which gave her a great introduction to local government. At the City, she discovered that Solid Waste had a need for her marketing skills and interned there for a while. She pursued the prestigious City Management Internship with the City of Phoenix after graduation, and after her year of interning for the City, was offered a job in Solid Waste. She hopes to eventually move on to city management.

What type of education or training is needed for this position? 

• Bachelor's degree

• Good project management and time management skills

• Willingness to learn

• Contract management knowledge is helpful

• Be able to handle sensitive financial information

What advice would she give to someone interested in this field? 
Lori's advice is to be willing to start from the bottom. A lot of staff in Solid Waste started at the bottom and worked their way up (many started as garbage truck drivers). She also said it is helpful if you are willing to do all kinds of work to help you learn, and be open to field experiences such as ride alongs. She often does invoices herself, even though she could assign them to someone else. This is so she understands how to do them so when she is supervising others, she has firsthand experience. 

Does she notice any new trends in the field? 
The biggest trend in solid waste is a focus on efficiency. Solid Waste is constantly analyzing drivers, routes, and services to see where we can cut down and be more efficient. Another trend is more transparency in government, and more interaction with City Council. City Council is more involved with Solid Waste than ever. There is also great focus on the goal of diverting from the landfill- Phoenix's goal is 40 by 20 (40% diversion rate by 2020).

Leadership in my Internship

How does leadership play a role in your internship? Are you able to demonstrate any leadership skills? How do your co-workers or supervisor display leadership capabilities?

This is a great internship because I get the chance to demonstrate my leadership abilities. I am definitely not running errands, making coffee, or collating copies. I am given projects to work on, and I must decide how to approach them and who I need to contact to get information. I work independently a lot, and I must be self-directed and self-motivated.

Last week, the other intern Patricia and I led a meeting to discuss communications and messaging for the city's new smaller trash container size. We presented our ideas and had a great discussion with several of our co-workers about different ways to explain and promote the new program to the public. Next Monday, we will present these ideas to the Assistant Public Works Director at a Solid Waste meeting.

My supervisor Lori demonstrates leadership capabilities in her job by guiding Patricia and I in our internship program. She supervises several other of my co-workers and is responsible for budgets and contracts. She has a very friendly and supportive leadership style, and so I really enjoy working for her.

Two Ride Alongs One Day

I had another 5:30 am work day, where I headed to the Salt River facility to meet up with a driver for my first ride along. This time I rode in a side-loading truck, which is the truck that picks up the residential trash cans on the street and in the alleys.

It was a lot bumpier than my last ride, with many starts and stops Albert, my driver, was a friendly guy who had been driving for 8 years. Like Zoolander, garbage trucks avoid left turns, so the route seems like you are just going in circles. However, as I learned when I spoke to analysts back at the office, these are actually the most efficient routes.

After riding around in the garbage truck for a few hours, I met up with the other intern and Ramon, a MET specialist. MET used to stand for Mobile Enforcement Team but now it stands for Mobile Engagement team (much friendlier). This unit deals with customers and various problems that come up with trash pickup. A common problem is that people's trees are overgrown and hanging out in the street. Not only is this a hassle for the drivers, but it is dangerous, as a low-hanging branch could break a windshield. The specialist talks to the resident, and if they do not address the problem within 7 days, they could receive a Notice of Violation.

Another issue was with an alley. Alleys have the large 300-gallon bins. This alley is next to private businesses, and there are a lot of problems with illegal dumping in their bins. To solve the problem, the City is proposing to give the 9 houses that use the alley their own green bins to put in the front of the house. We went door to door to give residents a survey. At least 75% of them must respond to the survey with a "yes" to the change before it can be put into effect. Some residents were home, and Ramon spoke to them about the survey. For the rest, we left the surveys at the door. We met the sweetest elderly lady ever, who was very friendly. Most of the residents seemed like they agreed that dumping is a problem.

To be honest, I am surprised the city does this kind of customer service. I would think they would just switch the street to curbside service, instead of gathering customer input in such a personal way. It's a great team that I had no idea even existed before I got into Solid Waste.

Luckily, no one slammed the door in our faces or yelled at us while we were out with Ramon. Plenty of customers get upset and are very sensitive about people coming onto their property. Ramon is a very personable and patient guy, so he is really good at dealing with all kinds of people.

This work "out in the field" has definitely been eye-opening, and hopefully I'll get to do more trips like this in my internship.

Reimagine Phoenix Campaign

Last Thursday, I attended a meeting with staff from Solid Waste and the consultants that are helping the City with its "Reimagine Phoenix" campaign. Their job was to come up with ideas for communicating this campaign to the public. It was pretty interesting for me to see the marketing side of city government.

Reimagine Phoenix is all about reducing, reusing, recycling, reconsidering, and reimagining. The consultants had some very visually appealing ideas for print ads and billboards using the pinwheel pictured above. The ads featured 2 items: one that can be recycled into the other, like tires into colorful sneakers.

The consultants also had ideas for radio, TV, and a website for Reimagine Phoenix, encouraging residents to think of trash as something that can be reused or recycled rather than thrown out. I really liked the website design, and I liked how they connected to social networks, especially Pinterest. I am a big Pinterest fan, and people post so many crafts and ideas on how to reuse items on that site.

One of the issues we discussed at the meeting was the magnets. In the past, Phoenix gave out magnetized laminates that describe the items that residents can recycle. However, the magnets are expensive to mail out to everyone. We were trying to think of new ideas of how to encourage people to recycle and also to recycle correctly. Some thought the magnets were still the best, and other ideas included a printable pdf, or a decal on the bottom of the recycling bin lid.

I am currently working on communications and messaging for Phoenix's pay-as-you-throw garbage program, which will roll out next year, so this meeting was very useful to me. I am excited to see the Reimagine Phoenix campaign roll out.

Career Services Write-Up

For my career services blog entry, I will be writing about my visit to see Maryjo Zunk, the School ofPublic Affairs’ career counselor. Although I was somewhat familiar with the resources available to me through ASU, Maryjo showed me how to use these resources to my advantage.

SunDevil CareerLink has a large amount of job listings to sort through. However, you can make job searching easier by selecting specific employers; you can see if they have hired anyone at ASU and they often have an ASU alumni contact. This includes many public service employers at every level of government as well as nonprofits.

Maryjo also showed me more ways to use LinkedIn. I have had a LinkedIn since I was an undergraduate, when I learned of its existence at an 85 Broads conference. However, I have not really used it much or kept it up to date. There are several ASU group available to join, and you can list skills that your connections can endorse, while you can endorse others’ skills. This is a good way to build up your profile. You can also connect to Maryjo, who is constantly connecting to alumnae and employers.

I am still working on my LinkedIn, but feel free to connect with me: www.linkedin.com/pub/megan-o-brien/4/b87/129

Garbage Truck Ride-a-long

Last Friday, I woke up early and met a driver for a 5:30 am garbage truck ride-a-long. I rode in a front loading truck, pictured below. It has arms that extend to pick up the dumpster, so the driver can stay in the truck for the most part. There are several locations where my driver had to open a gate or move a bin out into position.

It was an interesting ride. We covered an area of South Phoenix from 56th to 7th Street. Places that have these 3 or 4 yard bins are churches, parks, and small apartment complexes. I saw some of the, shall we say, less glamorous parts of town. We came across overloaded bins filled with all kinds of items, bins with mattresses and furniture next to them, a dead cat (my driver had to call animal control), and a car parked in the fire lane blocking the bin (which the driver has to call in).

The driver has been driving for a while and enjoys his job. He likes working alone and working 4 ten-hour days. The driver is responsible for writing down mileage, and ensuring that he tips his load before it reaches its weight limit (or sometimes volume limit). He has to empty every bin and if he can't empty one for some reason, he has to call it in. He has to watch out for children, animals, and especially low hanging wires.

The truck is very loud and fairly bumpy. The smell wasn't too bad until we got out of the truck, and when we got to the landfill tipping floor to dump our load.

I'm glad that I get to spend so much time out in the field experiencing what goes on. Everyone I work with does ride-a-longs as well, which is useful since most of the decisions made downtown affect the drivers' day-to-day work.

Transfer Station Tour

This morning, I took a tour of the North Gateway Transfer Station and Materials Recovery Facility with Patricia, the other intern. It was led by our coworker Terry. This was my first experience "out in the field," and next time I'll try to take pictures to make a more interesting blog post (I just found some online for this post).

What's a Transfer Station? This is where the garbage trucks dump their trash, so it can be consolidated into semi-trucks and then transported to a landfill.

What's a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF)? This is where recycled materials are sorted and "baled" (like hay bales) to be transported and sold.

Terry is very enthusiastic about garbage and recycling and is very knowledgable. We went to a viewing area, where we could view both the area where garbage is dumped and the MRF. This is where they take kids on tours. It is filled with art, which is really cool. I recommend the interactive website: http://phoenixrecyclingproject.org/. Here you can view and interact with this art.



We also went on the floor, out to the areas where trash is dumped and to the MRF (Terry told us this is the VIP tour). Yes, the garbage side smells. They have to constantly be watering everything to avoid dust (AZ has pretty strict regulations about dust- small dust particles can get into the lungs). We saw things such as green waste, which can be sorted and mulched, appliances, metal, tires, and those giant old TVs. Those TVs are a problem because they are huge and no one wants them any more- if anyone has any ideas what to do with them let me know!

The recycling side was pretty interesting. The machinery is used to sort materials into plastic, glass, aluminum, paper, cardboard, etc. There are also workers who sort items as they come through the conveyor- some items could stop up the machinery. Rejected material goes on a conveyor belt to the garbage area.



If you get anything out of my post, remember this: DON'T RECYCLE PLASTIC BAGS! Plastic bags are a lot of the rejected recycling. They get very easily stuck in the machinery. Every couple of hours they have to stop the machines and cut out the plastic bags so the machines don't catch fire. You can turn them in at grocery stores at Bag Central Station, or reuse them as small garbage bags (you can store them in old tissue boxes or Lysol wipe containers).

The MRF is run by Recommunity, a company that contracts with the City of Phoenix. They sell the bales, which are sorted by type of material. Most material that is recycled in the US is actually sold overseas.

A few interesting facts:

• People throw all kinds of crazy stuff in the recycling bin. We saw clothes, propane tanks, and apparently even dead animals have been found in the recycling pile
• You can figure out where piles of recycling material came from by looking at the addresses on the mail in that pile
• Recycled green glass is the hardest to sell. Why? Think of what comes in green glass. Heineken, wine bottles....a lot of foreign imports. It would be expensive to send that stuff back to where it came from.

SWAG

Current Projects

I have been working on a few projects so far:

On-Call Bulk Trash Collection: Bulk trash is defined as items too large to fit in the regular garbage bin, such as furniture and yard waste. Currently, the City of Phoenix has 4 bulk trash pickups every year. The city is divided into 13 areas, and each has its own schedule for bulk trash collection. The City is interested in switching to a system, included in the base service fee, where customers can call to schedule a bulk trash pickup. I have been researching other cities that have an on-call bulk trash system and comparing different aspects of these systems.

Reno PAYT: PAYT is a pay-as-you-throw system of billing residents for garbage. Usually, it means the residents can choose which size garbage and recycling bins. Larger garbage bins are more expensive (usually recycling is not to encourage residents to recycle more). Reno is in the process of switching to a PAYT system. I found some of the information I was looking for online, but I emailed someone at the City of Reno. He was actually extremely helpful and gave me even more information than I asked for. Emailing for research isn't always productive, so I was very excited that this contact I made was so helpful.

I will continue to update on these and other projects I work on throughout the semester.

Describe a typical day at your internship

Well, I've only been at my internship about a week. I got to choose my own schedule so I am working 8-1 Monday-Thursday most weeks.

So far, I have been working on independent research projects. I am researching bulk trash pickup in different cities, and Reno, NV's pay-as-you-throw trash collection system. I have been going on a lot of different cities websites, particularly cities similar to Phoenix in size, climate, population, etc., and also getting in touch with some of the other city's employees.

I will be involved in more meetings in the coming days and weeks. Also, this week I have a tour of a transfer station scheduled, as well as a ride-a-long on a garbage truck! I will definitely report back about my tours and ride-a-longs. I will have at least one more ride-a-long next week, too.

I will spend a lot of time doing research and writing up reports or other deliverables, but I will also get to sit in on meetings and spend some time in the field, so I get a good balance of types of work.

Call Center

Earlier last week, I got a chance to observe the call center for Solid Waste by listening in on calls for a couple of hours. This call center receives all of the complaints and requests related to City of Phoenix garbage services. Despite having a potentially very high stress job, everyone in the call center is very friendly with a great sense of humor.

Most of the calls were people requesting replacement garbage or recycling bins or asking when their areas bulk trash pickup would occur. There were also people trying to determine if pickup had occurred yet that day, and people lodging complaints. The call center employees could look up routes on maps, including a GIS map with several layers. They could also call workers out in the field to check on how they were doing on their route for the day.

It was a good experience to listen in on these calls. I learned quite a bit more about how solid waste management works in Phoenix. I also always have great respect for anyone in a customer service job, as I have had several. They always require a lot of patience. I appreciated getting to know a few more coworkers too. Public Works is pretty large, so I am still just starting to get to know my coworkers.

Introduce the organization you are interning for. What do they do and what will you be doing for them?

I am interning for the City of Phoenix Public Works Department, in the Solid Waste division. Public Works includes garbage services, recycling and diversion, sustainability, design and construction management, and education and outreach. I am working in Solid Waste, which includes recycling programs, call center, billing, and routing, among other services. Public Works is a large department that takes up two floors in City Hall.

I am an administrative intern. Here is my official position description: 

The purpose of this internship is to conduct independent and directed research 

and program development related to sustainability initiatives specific to the Solid 

Waste Division of the Public Works Department. Work requirements normally 

have division-wide impact and at times may involve other city departments, City 

Council and/or the City Manager’s Office. The intern must demonstrate high 

initiative and judgment and will provide professional level staff assistance to the 

department. 

I had a meeting with John Trujillo, Assistant Director of Public Works. The other intern and I discussed our strengths, skills, and interests and what we would like to do in our internship. We will both be working on various projects. With my interest in the politics of public policy, I hope to sit in on some City Council meetings and do work developed to policy within the Solid Waste division. I also expressed some interest in using data-crunching skills that I am acquiring through my classes in my internship. 

I look forward to learning a great deal about city government and contributing to sustainability within the City of Phoenix. 

Introduction

I'm Megan, a Master of Public Policy student at ASU. I am in my second semester of the program. I am a Phoenix native, and I attended Bryn Mawr College in PA for my undergraduate degree. After graduation, I lived in China teaching English for a year before I moved back to Arizona. I have experience working as a page in the Arizona House of Representatives for two legislative sessions, and as an intern at DES in the Office of Accountability. 

My internship for the 2013-2014 school year is with the City of Phoenix Public Works department, as an administrative intern in the Solid Waste division. 

My three goals for this internship:

1) Learn about city government and its sustainability programs

2) Gain research skills

3) Network and learn from my coworkers